


A Plucked Rose

by ArtNerdSarah



Category: Once Upon a Time (In Space) - The Mechanisms (Album), The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Angst, Canon Typical Violence, Characters are a bit OOC, Dorks in Love, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Guns, Immortality, Implied Sexual Content, Jealousy, Jonny is in love, M/M, Mortality, Sad Ending, Swords, Violence, but I’m trying, but no smut, but not for long, jealous gunpowder tim, no happy ending, one beta but we still die like archival assistants, so much fucking angst, still tagged graphic, they need therapy, two people grossly in love, violence treated like a game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:26:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24573013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtNerdSarah/pseuds/ArtNerdSarah
Summary: Jonny d’Ville is in love with Briar Rose. He’s so in love that he forgot something crucial: Briar Rose is mortal.~~The major focus of this is Jonny/Briar Rose, and the rest is mostly background
Relationships: Briar Rose/Jonny d'Ville, Jonny d'Ville & Nastya Rasputina, Jonny d’Ville/Gunpowder Tim (one-sided), Nastya Rasputina/Aurora
Comments: 19
Kudos: 38





	A Plucked Rose

**Author's Note:**

> I know that, canonically (according to “Ever After” on the Mechs website, under Fiction), Briar Rose and Cinders spent whatever short life they had left together, but you know what? I ship Jonny & Briar Rose, and canon can go fuck off. My fic, my rules.
> 
> Prepare for some heavy angst, y’all
> 
> Once again, my lovely Beta is LeoTheWolf73

Briar Rose was _red_. Whether it was her red hair, red lips, red clothes, or her cheeks red with blood (either her own blush or someone else’s gore), Briar Rose was always red.

Briar Rose was always _beautiful_.

Briar Rose was a great fit for the Mechanisms. She was a tough, bloodthirsty, sadistic fighter. She knew how to have fun, she was witty, and she had that spark of madness behind the eyes that made her click with just about everyone. It took only a day for Briar Rose to endear herself to nearly all of the crew, and that’s where she stayed for the next six months.

Briar Rose was a great fit for Jonny d’Ville. She had a certain _je ne sais quoi_ that he couldn’t get enough of. He knew she shared _his_ brand of playfulness during combat, he knew she shared _his_ style of humor, and he knew she shared _his_ level of brutality. But there was something else. Briar Rose radiated a certain… **_something_ **, and he couldn’t help but be drawn to her like a moth to a flame. Briar Rose was a drug, and Jonny d’Ville was addicted.

Jonny d’Ville was in love.

Jonny loved Briar Rose when she was utterly dripping with blood, grinning like a mad woman, bloodlust and insanity sparking just behind her eyes. Jonny loved Briar Rose when she pushed him down, pressing her iron-tasting lips into his own and tearing his clothes off with a hunger he didn’t think was possible. Jonny loved Briar Rose when all else was quiet, and she slept against his shoulder. Jonny loved Briar Rose when she laughed. Jonny loved Briar Rose when she cried. Jonny loved Briar Rose when she needed her distance. Jonny loved Briar Rose when she wanted him close.

Jonny would do anything for his Briar Rose.

Something Jonny could never have anticipated was how much closer his new relationship (god, he felt so good calling his thing with Briar Rose a “ _relationship”_ ) was how much closer he grew to the ship’s engineer, Nastya. Before, Jonny could never fathom how or why Nastya would spend hours gushing about the Aurora. Now? Now there were days where he would just rest his head in Nastya’s lap, gushing about his beautiful, fun, exhilarating Rose.

If you told Jonny from six months ago that he would turn into a gushing, cliche, lovestruck _puppydog_ over, in his words, “a science project with a broken snooze button”, he probably would have shot you then and there.

Sometimes, it disgusted Jonny how sweet he had become (it clearly disgusted Tim—not that Jonny cared about that). But whenever it did, he would take one look at Briar Rose, see that wonderful glint in her eyes, and all that disgust melted away as he fell in love all over again.

Jonny d’Ville was so in love that he forgot something extremely important: Briar Rose never met Dr. Carmilla. Briar Rose was still a Rose Clone. Briar Rose was **mortal**.

…

It was quite common for Jonny and his Briar Rose to enter battle hand-in-hand, a gun in his right hand and a sword in her left. There was a certain thrill to that.

There was a certain thrill to the way he pulled Rose behind himself and shot some poor fool in the head—soldier, criminal, civilian, it didn’t matter.

There was a certain thrill to the way she cut through the neck of some man that managed to pin Jonny to the ground. There was a certain thrill to the way she pulled him to his feet and into a kiss before running off to slaughter more people.

There was a certain thrill to the way she locked eyes with Jonny from a distance as she pulled the trigger, causing a bullet to rip through someone’s jaw. Blood painted her cheeks, just shy of those sparkling eyes of hers.

Of course, all good battles end eventually.

Jonny wasted no time running to his Briar Rose, and she wasted no time running to her beloved pirate. They met in the middle when she jumped into his arms and pulled him into a kiss. If the others groaned, complained, or walked away in annoyance, Jonny didn’t notice. He only heard Rose’s gorgeous voice as she pulled away. “Aren’t you impatient?”

Jonny dipped her down, one hand in her hair and the other against the small of her back. “You’re one to talk. Besides, how could I ever resist you when you look so lovely?”

Rose chucked at that. “Covered in a stranger’s gore?”

“Precisely~” And their lips connected again.

Jonny hardly even heard the gunshot. He just noticed her lips slacken and her head tilt back.

Briar Rose was _red_ . She was always _red_ . She was so _red_ , in fact, that it was difficult to tell where her hair was red naturally and where the red was from her own blood. There were two spots: an entrance wound and an exit wound.

“Huh. Poor timing, but alright.” Jonny just shrugged and lifted her over his shoulder. He didn’t notice all of the Mechanisms now staring until he had almost reached the ship. “What?” Jonny looked around at the odd looks he was getting from everyone—except the Toy Soldier, but it was always an exception. “ _What?_ ”

Marius was looking at him almost… pitifully? Jonny sneered as soon as he realized, but he didn’t say anything. Marius did. “You’re bringing her?”

Jonny just chuckled. “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”

Gunpowder Tim scoffed, hands now on his hips. “Didn’t know you were a necrophile.”

Jonny squinted at him. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Nastya took a few steps closer. “Jonny—” She tried to put a hand on his shoulder, but he slapped her hand off.

“What?! What the fuck is it?!”

“She’s not… a Mechanism.”

Jonny glared at Nastya. “I thought you were the _first_ to warm up to her. Why the hell would you say that?”

Nastya shook her head. “I’m sorry, Jonny.”

Then, he remembered something extremely important.

His arm shook. Her body fell. Something inside Jonny d’Ville snapped.

Jonny pulled out his gun and checked the barrel. Empty. Damn. He kneeled down and pulled her sword out of her hilt. He stood. “Who shot her.” It wasn’t a question.

Tim pointed in a direction. That was all Jonny needed to take off running.

…

It didn’t take long to find the one survivor, limping through this planet’s sewer system, completely disarmed. Jonny felt only rage as he chased them down, his heart beat pounding in his ears

In no time at all, Jonny had them pinned against the metal wall, sword against their neck. “ **You.** ” They were sobbing, begging, pleading for something (mercy, maybe?), but Jonny was deaf to all but the blood. They screamed as he drew the blade down into their throat, slow and deliberate, relishing in the way their screams faded into a choked gurgling which, in turn, faded into nothing at all.

He let their body fall to the ground, panting. His legs grew weak. Jonny let himself sink down against the wet metal wall.

And then, silence. A long, bitter silence broken only by the sobbing of Jonny d’Ville, weeping over his lost love.

…

Jonny kept his head down as he resurfaced, Rose’s sword over his shoulder. He kept his head down as he walked over the bodies of the dead. He kept his head down as he approached the ship. He refused to look anyone in the eye.

Nastya opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. **Good.** Jonny didn’t think he could deal with anything she—no, anything _anyone_ had to say.

He kneeled down and picked up Briar Rose—no, Briar Rose’s _corpse_ , and carried it over his shoulder as he entered the Aurora. Silent.

He barely even registered when the others followed suit.

…

Jonny spent the next several hours preparing. He worked tirelessly, without food or sleep, to clean her. First, Briar Rose’s blade. Her most treasured possession. He had considered keeping it, but decided it was best for her to hold onto. When it was finally sleek, clean of all blood, he secured it into the hilt. Next, Briar Rose’s clothes. He spent a long time getting rid of even the old blood stains that had accumulated over the past six months. The best six months he could remember. Once that was done, he secured the hilt to the waist of her skirt. Lastly, Briar Rose herself. Jonny didn’t even know he was capable of so much delicacy, but here he was. He spent at least an hour getting every drop of blood out of her hair, cleaning up her wounds, getting off every last drop of blood from her skin. He even wrapped her head in bandages. Not that it would matter, but he felt it was only appropriate. Somehow.

At last, she was ready.

Jonny picked her up bridal style. Ironic, given how she was born from a woman stolen on her wedding day. Not like that mattered, of course.

Jonny ignored the looks of the few crew still awake as he walked to the airlock.

Rose had loved the stars. It was only right that she would get to explore them forever. Jonny closed the door on the interior of the airlock, and pushed the button to let her out the other end.

Through the glass, Jonny watched his love drift away.

He didn’t cry. Instead, he took in a deep breath and clenched his fists, swearing to himself that he would **never** make that mistake again.

…

Gunpowder Tim had never considered himself the _jealous_ type. He never really even thought of himself as the emotional type, really. Not since Bertie.

He was proven wrong when Briar Rose joined the crew of the Mechanisms, and Tim realized that he very much _was_ , both emotional and jealous.

And he was jealous over _Jonny. Fucking. d’Ville_.

He tried to swallow down his emotions, gut them if possible, and just go back to feeling only manic joy and the occasional bouts of rage. He tried so hard.

But as the days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months, Tim’s jealousy only grew.

He had imagined killing Briar Rose so. Many. Times. But he didn’t think he’d ever get the opportunity.

And then, the opportunity came.

Marius, after wolf whistling, found interest in some building, and pulled Toy Soldier and Drumbot Brian along with him. Ivy found herself far more interested in some book or another that was on a body, while Ashes was entertaining themselves burning everything around them. And Nastya? Well, all he had to do was get her to look at the Aurora and suddenly her attention was all over that ship.

The best part? Tim even noticed a convenient survivor.

So, he pulled the trigger.

Tim never thought it would be so _easy_. It was so easy to just take the shot. It was so easy to point in the direction that the survivor ran in.

It was so _easy_ to get away with it.

Gunpowder Tim had never considered himself the _loving_ type. But nevertheless, he was in love with Jonny d’Ville. And he would have Jonny d’Ville. Eventually.

**Author's Note:**

> Constructive criticism welcome!


End file.
